D Carleton Gajdusek won the Nobel Prize for the discovery of Prions - the particles that would emerge as the cause of Mad Cow disease - while working with a cannibal tribe on New Guinea. Over his years working amongst the tribes of the South Seas, he adopted 57 kids, bringing them to a new life in Washington DC. But, at the height of his career, rumours began to spread he was a paedophile.
Gajdusek would argue that if sex with children was okay in their own cultures, he wasn't wrong to join in. How could a great mind lose insight so totally, and why would the scientific community to which he was a hero be so quick to leap to his defence and dismiss the allegations?
This striking and powerful documentary explores the limits of insight and the power of self-delusion, through one of the century's true geniuses - a man prepared to defy convention and challenge people's most cherished beliefs, a man whose scientific brilliance seemed to blind many to his extraordinary personal failings.
| Title | The Genius and the Boys |
|---|---|
| Genres | Documentary |
| Release Date | 2009-06-06 |
| Episode Runtime | 01 Hours 25 Minutes |
| Season Number | 13 |
| Episode Number | 15 |
| Production Companies | BBC Four |
No cast information available.
